How necessary is the Skull Cavern?

[MogBeoulve]

Just wondering as I don't need more iridium ore. I've only ever found three prismatic shards but am struggling to figure out what to do with the third. As I've been seriously overwhelmed the few times I've tried to go in there, I'm wondering if I'm missing the point or something.

 

[imnvs]

The first goals in the Skull Cavern are to reach the floors Mr Qi sets as goals for you, the first gets you cash and the second gets you a permanent boost to your maximum health.

After that, the point for most people IS to get iridium ore and prismatic shards.

Also, once you get to level 10 of the Volcano Dungeon on Ginger Island, you'll have plenty of use for prismatic shards. You'll want lots of them.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

I always use my my first three prismatic shards for the galaxy sword, movie theater, and museum donation.
If you are seeking perfection/completion, the monster eradication goals would require enough skull cavern to meet the quotas for the enemies you can only find there, like mummies and pepper rex. Similarly, you can't complete the wallet without the reward for the level 100 quest.

 

[MogBeoulve]

Thanks for the advice. Perhaps this is my fourth, then, as I think I did those same things but still have a shard chilling out in a chest somewhere.

I speed-ran unlocking the forge, then realized I can't actually use it yet as I didn't get enough cinder shards. It's a good thing I wasn't really looking forward to any of the enchantments. (Look, I forget that the hammer has a special attack over half the time. How useful is Artful if you never take advantage of it?)

Perfection is a faraway dream for me - I'm not sure I will ever be able to catch all of the fish. I guess I could try for the monster eradication goals anyway. It would be nice to have more ring options. Maybe I would even be less horrible at combat?

 

[qaija]

Prismatic shards have many uses. The properties of your weapon and each of your tools can be changed with them at the forge. For example, I like the Crusader skill on my weapon as I find this useful when attacking ghosts and skeletons in SC. They are easier to kill and the skeletons do not respawn. I like Powerful on my pickaxe as this reduces the number of hits I need to break open nodes of gold and iridium. I like Bottomless on my watering can as I never have to refill it. All NPC's I believe love receiving one as a gift. Qi's Walnut room also has a quest requiring 4 Prismatic shards.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Prismatic shards have many uses. The properties of your weapon and each of your tools can be changed with them at the forge. For example, I like the Crusader skill on my weapon as I find this useful when attacking ghosts and skeletons in SC. They are easier to kill and the skeletons do not respawn. I like Powerful on my pickaxe as this reduces the number of hits I need to break open nodes of gold and iridium. I like Bottomless on my watering can as I never have to refill it. All NPC's I believe love receiving one as a gift. Qi's Walnut room also has a quest requiring 4 Prismatic shards.

Powerful is most useful in the volcano where all rocks take 2 hits to break without and 1 with, effectively doubling your breaking speed.

 

[MogBeoulve]

I am back to report that I am almost certainly missing the point. I took staircases down to level 25 for the quest, only stopping to enact mass slaughter on the prehistoric floor I came across.

Meanwhile, two more prismatic shards appeared from my rainbow trout pond and an omni geode. I am PRETTY sure the RNG on this save is rolling in the floor laughing at me.

Plus, I used up my first batch of cinder shards getting the speed on my hammer to +9, so I still have yet to enchant anything.

It's definitely time to go pet my rabbits again. I'll be back when I have more staircases - I keep placing new ones instead of descending, so I'm going to need extra to actually get to floor 100. A lot extra. Maybe 150 should do it.

 

[Adaml_217]

If you aren't confident in Skull Caverns. which even I sometimes am nervous, you can always alternatively practice in the regular mines more - as the satisfaction of actually fighting and clearing skull caverns to reap the rewards is absolutely worth it, and for those who like mining, myself included (didn't use to, but it grew on me once I got over my fear of the flying cave bugs XD) the skull cavern is the late game variation of it.

 

[Jayamos]

It's definitely time to go pet my rabbits again. I'll be back when I have more staircases - I keep placing new ones instead of descending, so I'm going to need extra to actually get to floor 100. A lot extra. Maybe 150 should do it.

Oh, I like to do that, especially when I have three serpents and a big slime to escape. “I meant to use that staircase, not place this one!” And then I end up in Harvey’s office.

 

[Lew Zealand]

It's definitely time to go pet my rabbits again. I'll be back when I have more staircases - I keep placing new ones instead of descending, so I'm going to need extra to actually get to floor 100. A lot extra. Maybe 150 should do it.

This. This right here and totally this.

I don't know what system you play on, but even with the relative precision of a KB & Mouse on PC, I still misplace at least 10% of my staircases. I would probably be a wreck on Mobile though I think I've done it on a Switch and yes, I took ~150 Stairs.

Just keep your Food source ready for the inevitable Triple-Rock block in accompanied by 3 Flying Serpents, so you can pound that rock, eat an IridiCheez, and bang down that staircase. Which of course ends up in the diagonal space you can't reach.

You know those Serpents contracted out with the Rock Crabs to craft that nice Fire Ring around the ladder, expecting you as the guest of honor centerpiece/tasty meal for their Barbecue and Luau.

As the Serpents lazily chomp bites out of your tasty flesh, you down more magic IridiCheez shoulder rebuilder, bang down the Stairs in the actually right place and somehow make it down.

To get roasted by a pair of Dinos looking for a yummy Umami Farmer steak.

 

[Jayamos]

Just keep your Food source ready for the inevitable Triple-Rock block in accompanied by 3 Flying Serpents, so you can pound that rock, eat an IridiCheez, and bang down that staircase. Which of course ends up in the diagonal space you can't reach.
…
To get roasted by a pair of Dinos looking for a yummy Umami Farmer steak.

LOL, yes, this is an exact description of my own SC experience.

 

[Rhiannon]

This. This right here and totally this.

I don't know what system you play on, but even with the relative precision of a KB & Mouse on PC, I still misplace at least 10% of my staircases. I would probably be a wreck on Mobile though I think I've done it on a Switch and yes, I took ~150 Stairs.

Oh my gosh. I thought I was the only one who placed 2-3 staircases half the time in total fear I would be killed. I've only gone down the required levels for quests and didn't both to kill anything. I can get all the iridium ore I need after a certain something happens. BUT THEN, I found out we could get auto-petters - in the darn skull cavern. So I'm growing ingredients to make lucky lunches, and saving jade for buying stairs and telling myself it will be ok.

 

[qaija]

At around 15 crystalariums producing staircases I eventually end up with enough that accidentally placing 2 or more becomes irrelevant but prior to that it is a pita. I've learned to left click my mouse to put down the staircase and right click to descend which helps some but does not prevent the occurrence.

 

[imnvs]

At around 15 crystalariums producing staircases I eventually end up with enough that accidentally placing 2 or more becomes irrelevant but prior to that it is a pita. I've learned to left click my mouse to put down the staircase and right click to descend which helps some but does not prevent the occurrence.

I always end up with a big shed full of crystalariums pumping out jade. I call it "infinite staircases" because I get at least 400 jade per week. Staircases are about as valuable as water at that point.

Of course, staircases start stockpiling up, getting over 400 per week, so eventually I'll have a chest literally full of staircases, and at that point I take all the jade out and put diamonds in. If I start getting low on stairs, I'll remove the diamonds and put jade back in. This has never happened to date.

 

[MogBeoulve]

So my latest prismatic shard came from a green slime. Can I trade some of this luck for an ancient sword, please?

 

[FilthyGorilla]

This. This right here and totally this.

I don't know what system you play on, but even with the relative precision of a KB & Mouse on PC, I still misplace at least 10% of my staircases. I would probably be a wreck on Mobile though I think I've done it on a Switch and yes, I took ~150 Stairs.

Just keep your Food source ready for the inevitable Triple-Rock block in accompanied by 3 Flying Serpents, so you can pound that rock, eat an IridiCheez, and bang down that staircase. Which of course ends up in the diagonal space you can't reach.

You know those Serpents contracted out with the Rock Crabs to craft that nice Fire Ring around the ladder, expecting you as the guest of honor centerpiece/tasty meal for their Barbecue and Luau.

As the Serpents lazily chomp bites out of your tasty flesh, you down more magic IridiCheez shoulder rebuilder, bang down the Stairs in the actually right place and somehow make it down.

To get roasted by a pair of Dinos looking for a yummy Umami Farmer steak.

I misplace less than .5% of them though that’s by me memorizing most floor layouts and which ones have unplacable tiles too :l

I made a whole two hour long recording of a pretty good sec run to upload but OBS deleted all but 14 minutes of it and I couldn’t get it back. :,(

 

[FilthyGorilla]

So my latest prismatic shard came from a green slime. Can I trade some of this luck for an ancient sword, please?

Get a burglar ring and kill slimes in sc, just reset level 1 and reset the day if you don’t get one. You need about 600-700 kills for one using this strat on average. Alternatively you could just go down in skull cavern.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I misplace less than .5% of them though that’s by me memorizing most floor layouts and which ones have unplacable tiles too :l

I made a whole two hour long recording of a pretty good sec run to upload but OBS deleted all but 14 minutes of it and I couldn’t get it back. :,(

Noooooooo! Argh, that's frustrating. Wow the memorizing layouts is pretty great, most of the floors are familiar to me but really I probably need to adjust my mouse sensitivity as I twitch (and then freak out) too much and that makes any Staircase planning useless. I need more chilllllll..

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Noooooooo! Argh, that's frustrating. Wow the memorizing layouts is pretty great, most of the floors are familiar to me but really I probably need to adjust my mouse sensitivity as I twitch (and then freak out) too much and that makes any Staircase planning useless. I need more chilllllll..

The best trick I can recommend is always initially aim to the side instead of in front of you, there are only like 2 layouts with permanent side blockage on one side and like 3-4 with blockage out front.

 

[MogBeoulve]

I'm sad we don't get to see your SC run :( you've got such wisdom and experience, learning from you is always a treasure.

Do you mean that I should use Skull Cavern to look for artifact troves? I haven't tried that yet.